Tech Insider
Allan Holmes on what's happening and what's being discussed in the world of federal information technology.
- First Class Give-Away OK
In my last (modestly named) “DHS Confirms Four Leaders
It's official: The Senate confirmed four new leaders at the Homeland Security Department last night, one of which could play a key role in cybersecurity efforts.
Robert Jamison was appointed under secretary for the National Protection & Programs Directorate. The office is charged with minimizing the department's risk through an integrated approach of physical and virtual threats. Previously, Jamison served as deputy administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, leading a transit security program and Lower Manhattan transportation recovery operation, which was established after 9/11.
Other confirmations included Julie Myers as assistant secretary of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Jeffrey Runge as chief medical officer and assistant secretary for the Office of Health Affairs, and Ross Ashley as assistant administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff Web Headlines
Headlines from around the Web for Wednesday, Dec. 19.
Compiled by Melanie Bender
Poll Finds IT Workers Are Well-Off, Mostly Male and Concerned About Iraq
ComputerWorld
The IT workforce is overwhelmingly male, white and well-paid, and it sees the war in Iraq as the top political issue in the U.S., according to a poll of 600 tech workers by the Computing Technology Industry Association.
Congress Eases Access to Government Records
The Associated Press
Congress on Tuesday struck back at the Bush administration's trend toward secrecy since the 2001 terrorist attacks, passing legislation to toughen the Freedom of Information Act and increasing penalties on agencies that don't comply.
Congress Lags on Tech Issues in '07
ComputerWorld
No one is calling 2007 a banner year for the technology industry in the U.S. Congress. Congress passed a handful of bills that were on the wish lists of many tech vendor and trade groups, but in several cases, they represented only partial victories.
St. Louis Park Plans to Drop Wireless Contractor
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
St. Louis Park is dropping the contractor that was supposed to build the nation's first solar-powered citywide wireless Internet service. It will soon look for a new partner. City staff members estimate delays by the Maryland-based company have cost the city $300,000 in lost revenue.
Airport Fast-Pass Moves Slowly
BusinessWeek
Clear, a system which lets screened travelers skip long security lines, epitomizes the pitfalls of developing technology for Homeland Security agencies. Such partnerships between the private sector and DHS often become mired in bureaucracy.
In Colorado, Solution for Election Woes May Not be Simple
Rocky Mountain News
Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman tried Tuesday to ease widespread anxiety about upcoming elections by proposing ways that flawed electronic voting systems could be used in 2008 with small fixes and the help of new legislation. Meanwhile, voter advocacy groups laid the groundwork for another lawsuit.
Feinstein Offers Compromise: Secret Court Review of Wiretap Cases
San Francisco Chronicle
With the Senate at an impasse over protecting telecommunications companies from lawsuits for sharing phone calls and e-mails with the government, Sen. Dianne Feinstein says she has a possible compromise: allowing a secret court to decide whether the firms believed they were acting legally.
Judge Blocks Fla. Voter Registration Law
The Associated Press
A federal judge blocked enforcement Tuesday of a Florida law that prevents people from registering to vote if officials cannot match their Social Security or driver's license numbers to federal or state databases. - What's Up With GTSI?
Usually, when a company toots its own horn it's because the positives aren't noteworthy enough to speak for themselves. Not so in the case of Chantilly, Va.-based solution provider GTSI. The company has promoted its recent accomplishments hard, but with what seems like good reasons.
Most federal agencies know GTSI. The company made its name (and profits) for the majority of its 25 years in business by selling IT products. But changes in how the federal government buys IT, poor corporate management decisions and a botched ERP system implementation led GTSI to a $16 million loss in 2005, no line of credit and a 55 percent employee attrition rate.
Fast forward two years to the present. The company's services revenue has grown from $18 million to $150 million -- that's a 733 percent growth rate. Earlier this month GSA awarded GTSI a Mission Oriented Business Integrated Services (MOBIS) Schedule, which some might argue as confirmation that company efforts to transition from product peddler to services provider are working. In its third quarter of 2007, its gross margin reached nearly 15 percent and operating expenses declined more than 5 percent. Sales for that same period declined 25 percent, but management points to the corporate decision to not discount orders of less than $10,000 and net certain software and service offerings as the reason. Net income for the quarter was $5.5 million compared to a let loss of $3.4 million a year ago -- a positive change of 263 percent.
CEO Jim Leto said in a meeting with Government Executive Tuesday that GTSI has achieved all of the objectives he set when he took over the helm in February 2006. Whether or not that will continue remains to be seen. When asked what we might expect for the year-end financials, Leto only said that he hoped a spending bill would get passed sooner rather than later. Maybe that signifies an impending loss, as agencies have